I have no idea where this Christmas tree decoration came from but it’s old – they certainly don’t make them like this anymore – it’s exactly the same as those we had on the tree when I was a little girl.
I’m sure it didn’t come from the time we cleared Dad’s house – seems to have appeared more recently.
Back in the late 50’s and 60’s there weren’t so many places to buy Christmas decorations – it was mainly Woolworths or the big department stores which we didn’t have in small towns. Every year we would make those paper chains that loop one strip through another. They went from corners of the rooms to the light fitting in the middle. Then out would come the concertina/honeycomb paper decorations – a bell, a star and some round balls. They had to be clipped together with a paper clip to hold them open and folded very carefully on twelfth night. And there were always balloons.
We had a big beam across the middle of the room and as more things became available Mum collected some small sprays of artificial holly and silver leaves and similar bits and would pin them along the beam on each side.
We always had a real Christmas tree which would start shedding needles almost as soon as it was brought in – shoved in a bucket of builders sand – always plenty of that in a builders yard. Mum had some very old tree decorations including clips that could hold proper birthday candles – although we never had them alight. There was always a problem with the lights – multi coloured- with bulbs that screwed in and had to be checked one by one every year to find out which one had failed.
I can remember how bare the room looked when the decorations came down but I expect Mum was glad to get them out of the way – she hated dust and old houses with wood beams and open fires produced plenty of that and once everything was put away she could get the the duster and polish out again.
Back Tomorrow
Sue
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